V. I. Lenin

To the Author ofThe Song of the Falcon

Published:Sotsial-DemokratNo. 34, December 5, 1914.

      Printed from theSotsial-Demokrattext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 41,

      pages344.2-345.1.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

Everyclass-conscious worker will feel a pang when he sees Gorky’s
signature alongside that of P. Struve under the chauvinistic-clerical protest
against German
barbarity.{1}

Ina talk we once had about Chaliapin’s genuflections, Gorky said:
“You can’t judge him too strictly; we artists have a different
mentality.” In other words, the artist frequently acts under the influence
of his emotion, which attains such a force that it suppresses all other
considerations.

Letthat be so. Let us say that Chaliapin must not be strictly judged. He is an
artist, and nothing more. He is a stranger to the cause of the proletariat:
today, he is a friend of the workers, tomorrow, a reactionary, moved by his
emotion.

Butthe workers have grown accustomed to regard Gorky as their own. They have
always believed that his heart beats as warmly as theirs for the cause of the
proletariat, and that he has dedicated his talent to the service of this cause.

Thatis why they keep sending messages of greetings to Gorky, and that is why
his name is so dear to them. It is this trust on the part of the class-conscious
workers that imposes on Gorky a certainduty—tocherish his good
name and to refrain from putting his signature to all sorts of cheap chauvinist
protests which could well confuse the workers who lack political
consciousness. They are still unable to find their bearings in many situations,
and could be led astray by Gorky’s name. Struve’s name will not
confuse any worker, but Gorky’s may.

Therefore,the class-conscious workers, who well realise the falsehood and the
vulgarity of this hypocritical protest against the “German
barbarians”, must feel that they have to rebuke the author ofThe Song
of the Falcon. They will tell him: “At this hard and responsible
moment through which the proletariat of Russia is going, we expected you to go
hand in hand with its leading fighters and not with Mr. Struve & Co.!”

{1}A reference to the appeal “From Writers, Artists and Actors” written
in the spirit of bourgeois patriotism and justification of tsarist Russia’s
war against Germany. It was signed by the honorary academicians and
well-known artists A. Vasnetsov, V. Vasnetsov and K. Korovin, the sculptor
S. Merkurov, F. Chaliapin and other prominent actors of Moscow theatres,
the writers Maxim Gorky, A. Serafimovich, Skitalets and others, the editors
of magazines P. Struve, N. Mikhailov, D. Tikhomirov, etc.

Theappeal was published in No. 223 ofRusskoye Slovoon
September 28 (October 11), 1914.

p. 344